3 Comments for “Then and Now”

I expect this decision to be reversed eventually, but it is yet another reminder for older gays and lesbians who served in the military that the COVID-19 pandemic carries echoes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic:

I happen to see some logic, given that the disease is known to cause lung damage in some survivors and there is almost no information on the long-term impacts.

I’m sure it will get reversed eventually. But there is a strong view in this country that the military is not the place for social experiments. The same could reasonably be said about science experiments.

I happen to see some logic, given that the disease is known to cause lung damage in some survivors and there is almost no information on the long-term impacts.

Uh, huh. The problem with the prophylactic theory is that the policy announced by the Pentagon won’t “permanently disqualify” the bulk of recovered COVID-19 men and women.

Most men and women of recruitment age are asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms; few, accordingly, have been tested or will be tested unless they are unlucky enough to be included in large-scale investigative testing (as in a case where everyone in a municipality is tested to determine baselines for infection).

The Pentagon has no plans to test potential recruits for antibodies, so the vast majority of recruits who have had COVID-19 won’t be “permanently disqualified”. Eventually, a large percentage of those in the military, as will be the case with the civilian population, will have had COVID-19, “permanent disqualification” or not.

The most idiotic dimension of the policy is that the military is cutting itself off from the military’s primary recruitment base — less affluent rural whites, African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. All of these groups have higher rates of infection than the general population, and the military plan will “permanently disqualify” members of the recruitment base disproportionately.

I think that the policy is stupid, but it might have an unintended salutatory effect — with so many in the recruitment base “permanently disqualified”, the military might have to return to the days of the draft, helping to equalize the burdens of military service throughout the population.

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IGF CultureWatch is a blog that originated with the Independent Gay Forum, a group of writers and activists who focused on advancing gay and lesbian legal equality and social inclusion beyond ideological rigidity and leftwing orthodoxy. more